The New York Jets have filed a million dollar lawsuit against one of their MetLife Stadium luxury suite holders, Toronto-based Super Metals & Mining (SM&M), Inc. According to the suit, which was filed in Bergen County Superior Court, SM&M and its chairman, Jack Usman, signed a three-year, 1.2 million dollar deal for Luxury Suite 14 last June. The deal reportedly included license fees, suite tickets, and reserved parking.
The suit also alleges that another $100,000 was promised by the defendants in exchange for “certain sponsorship and advertising rights.”
In the suit, the Jets contend that a first-year fee of $321,000 was never paid. Seizure of an $80,000 deposit lowered the first-year amount owed to $241,000. The second- and third-year suite fees were $357,000 and $375,000 respectively.
Usman, SM&M’s President, intended on taking the company public and planned on funding the box with the profits he made from SM&M going public. After meeting with his Jets luxury suite representative for the first time, Usman was told that he would receive the contract by mail. Usman alleges that the representative made subtle advances and overtures towards him throughout the day and continued to do so as she personally drove him home to his residence in NYC.
Upon receiving the contract on June 14th, Usman was to send the Jets an $80,000 deposit on the first season’s price of $320,000. This was not an issue as the $80,000 was paid. In July, the Jets asked for $18,000 to pay for the 50 Yard Line seats Usman got with the suite. The remaining $240,000 was due in early September.
However, SM&M never went public and Usman suffered from various health issues, making holding onto the luxury suite even more difficult.
On August 4th, Usman was admitted to the hospital in critical condition. Seven days later he broke his foot in eight places and is now disabled for life. As a result of these and other health related issues, Usman never attended a preseason game and wanted to cancel the box at that point.
Usman did attend the opening game against the Cowboys on September 11th, but said he did not feel right being there as his enjoyment for the suite diminished. He also attended three other games, but did not feel up to staying until the end. Soon after reportedly forgetting about the fourth game of the season, Usman decided to cancel the suite and terminate his contact. According to Usman and emails from the Jets, the Jets agreed to cancel the luxury suite.
After all previous payments were made, Usman owed the Jets $104,000 for the season. Usman has no problem with that, but does have a problem with them going after payments for the remaining two seasons.
Usman, who claims that the Jets tried to prolong the termination, has also cited the team for double billing, lousy suite service, being mis-sold on all fact and representations, antagonistic, and having certain requests unfulfilled. He plans to countersue the Jets for a sum higher than the $1.1 million that the team is seeking.
